


Retaliation

by illusionofcalm



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Pre-Canon, The Great Diamond Authority, the gem war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 12:00:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16367408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illusionofcalm/pseuds/illusionofcalm
Summary: The earth had once been another indistinguishable planet to be colonized, just like any other. Yellow had figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce Pink Diamond--the youngest, most inexperienced diamond of them all--to the process of planetary conquering. It had been difficult, since Pink was overly-sentimental about even the smallest of things, but it seemed as if she were eventually understanding it. If only she had realized...





	Retaliation

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for my creative writing class, so apologies for the over-explanation of stuff but I basically had to give as much context as I could about gem culture in the span of four pages :’)

Yellow Diamond silently approached the palanquin on the horizon, lost in her own thoughts. She’d been trapped there for many cycles now, still unsure of what to do. But she was a diamond, for stars’ sake! Gemkind turned to her for guidance, and yet she found herself lost without a solution to the most recent roadblock in Homeworld’s colonization.

The earth had once been another indistinguishable planet to be colonized, just like any other. Yellow had figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce Pink Diamond--the youngest, most inexperienced diamond of them all--to the process of planetary conquering. It had been difficult, since Pink was overly-sentimental about even the smallest of things, but it seemed as if she were eventually understanding it. If only she had realized...

Yellow stepped into the ornately decorated palanquin, and found herself facing a lamenting Blue Diamond, who had her face buried in her hands. Almost immediately, Yellow felt herself overcome with the gem’s emotions, much to her chagrin.

“Blue, do you mind?” She muttered, wiping away the tears that had pooled in the corners of her eyes unwillingly. “I need to speak with you.”

“I’m sorry,” she sniffled, glancing sorrowfully at the other gem. “I just… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her.”

Admittedly, Yellow hadn’t, either. The earth was the only place that her mind ever ventured to anymore. She just couldn’t escape that infernal planet. More than anything, she wanted to leave it behind and never look back at it again. But how could she live with herself, knowing that the rebellion was thriving? 

Rose Quartz--the defector, the monster--had taken Pink Diamond away from them. With a single slash of her blade, the once optimistic and curious diamond had been reduced to a pile of broken shards. Yellow had never expected the rebellion to last as long as it had, but they had finally made their move. To take out a diamond, much less the ruler of the colony like that was a direct challenge. She could practically hear Rose Quartz laughing now. Her, and the renegade pearl by her side, and her entire army of miscreants. They were winning the fight for earth, and they knew it.

Yellow and Blue would never have known it had happened, if not for the few witnesses that saw their diamond’s brutal demise. They had yet to respond to the news, and were struggling to recover from it. Blue Diamond’s mourning was likely to never end. She was infamous for never letting things go, and something as devastating as losing one of their own wouldn’t let up easy. Every time Yellow would meet with her, Blue’s emotional powers would stir, and make the other diamond feel overwhelmed with sadness. It was such a foreign emotion to her--everything about the situation had made her angry, not sorrowful. She could tell that Blue was vengeful, too, far under the surface. It just manifested in a different way, it seemed.

But her grieving was growing hard to deal with. Blue’s own colony was suffering because of her neglect, and Yellow knew that it would only continue to worsen. The last thing the Great Diamond Authority needed to be faced with would be a second rebellion on their hands.

“I understand that you’re hurting,” Yellow began hesitantly, as to not upset the gem more so than she already was. “But we need to think about our next plan of action.”

“For what purpose?” Blue snapped back, rising from her throne to stand at eye level with the other diamond. “It doesn’t matter anymore. The earth is still Pink’s. She would’ve wanted it to be left alone…”

“That’s absurd! We can’t afford to show weakness at a time like this. How do you think the public will view of their diamonds if they hear there’s been a revolution that we let succeed?”

Blue’s anger withered away, and she turned her gaze to the floor.

“Do you think I don’t feel guilty about this?” Yellow asked quietly, sincerely. “I’m the one who gave her that cursed planet in the first place! I knew she couldn’t handle it, but I let her have a colony anyways. I thought…”

“We should have protected her,” Blue cried, clinging onto Yellow’s shoulder desperately. “We should have listened to her… she knew that we shouldn’t have gone through with the colony, and we wouldn’t listen!”

Yellow gave a small nod of acknowledgment, but not much else. There wasn’t anything she could say to comfort the other diamond, because she was absolutely right. If only they had taken the time to talk to her…

“Pink… she wouldn’t have wanted to die in vain.” Yellow murmured. “We need to strike back, for her sake.”

“What are we to do? If they got to her…”

“She was naïve.” Yellow suddenly stood tall. “Now we know just how devoted this resistance is to their cause. We have to retaliate stronger if we are to crush the last of it, and erase this mistake from our history. The Diamond Authority is not to be questioned.”

The distraught gem blinked a few times as realization overcame her. “Yellow, you couldn’t mean…”

“We don’t have any other options. We need to contact White.”

**Author's Note:**

> Excerpt from the original fan fiction project (attempted coffee shop AU satire, where I came to the realization that I’m not funny enough to write satire):
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s for Steven, you said? How do you write that?”  
> “Oh, it’s ‘S-T-E-V-E-N.’”  
> “What? I thought it was ‘S-T-E-P-H-E-N.’”  
> “I… what? No? It’s always been with a ‘V.’”  
> “Are you sure? I mean, aren’t they like, interchangeable or something? They sound the same.”  
> “That’s not how names work. How does a ‘PH’ even make a ‘V’ sound? The English language doesn't make any sense. Who designed this?”


End file.
